


Luminous

by veridium_bye



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/F, Femslash, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-26
Updated: 2018-09-26
Packaged: 2019-07-17 18:10:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16101032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/veridium_bye/pseuds/veridium_bye
Summary: One of Olivia’s projects in the study tower compels her to share its success with Cassandra, who is initially reluctant to such an activity. However, soon, it becomes clear that some forms of magic cannot be hindered when they are founded on the basis of love and wonder.





	Luminous

**Author's Note:**

> OH SO MUCH GAY FLUFF. MY GOSH. A TON.

“Cassandra, I must show you something!” Olivia’s sweet tenor voice invaded the room with the utmost sweetness. It was way past sunset, the dark night beckoning sleep. Cassandra had awaited her lover to come and fall asleep beside her, as she always did, but tonight Olivia had found a reason to stay away longer than usual. Her excited entrance gave a clue as to why. 

“Olivia, is this going to be another one of your explosive experiments?” Cassandra rubbed her forehead as she leaned up out of bed, having lounged on top of the sheets in her resting clothes while awaiting her. Seeing Olivia in her day dress, hair messy and halfway out of its ponytail, with stains and dirt on her feet and hem line, she knew she must have come straight from the study Tower. 

“Oh, hush! I would never do them indoors!” Olivia shut the door behind her with a swift shove, before her quick-pace brought her over to the Seeker’s table by her window. She was carrying a cylindrical object in her hands, covered by some gathered dress skirt she crinkled in her grip. “This is nothing for weapons, anyway!”

Cassandra’s brow furrowed. “Then, some insect or small animal you’ve managed to charm?” 

“No, not this time!” Olivia was rubbing the bottle as if it was a friend’s arm after they had come in from the cold winter air. “I have to warm it a bit, the evening chill can neutralize it.”

“Neutralize?”

“You’ll see! You sound so picky!” she teased with a preoccupied grin. 

Cassandra gathered her legs and touched her feet down on the floor beside her bed, hands placed on the edge as she watched Olivia shuffle her hands feverishly. She was clearly on a bender about something, and wouldn’t be stopped until whatever she was conniving was executed perfectly. She had encountered her fits of determination once or twice at this point to know intervention was futile. 

“Very well, I will be on stand-by should you…need assistance, I suppose,” the Seeker said, though biting back her intrinsic desire to control the situation. 

“No need! It is rather simple,” Olivia said, finally finishing her bottle-warming procedure and uncovering it from the hold of her dress fabric. The bottle looked like it was filled with some sand substance, charcoal and heather grey in coloring, and seemed rather dormant on the surface. However, if Olivia was messing with it, it must mean that the perceived safety was just that: shallow perception. 

“Alright! Now, to spread this stuff all over your ceiling,” Her gaze turned upwards as her hands uncorked the bottle. 

“Olivia, are you joking?” Cassandra finally rose to her feet, approaching Olivia’s right side as she heard her true intentions for whatever the substance was. Some small and isolated demonstrations of magic were par for the course in loving a Mage, but the Seeker’s notorious lack of humor drew the line at embedding strange powders in her sleeping quarters. 

Olivia let out a puff of air, blowing a strand of hair that had fallen over her face from the top of her forehead, before her eyes narrowed in return to Cassandra’s words. 

“What, you think I have designs on your life? This is pure fun, it won’t harm you one bit. I could eat the stuff if I wanted to, see–” she then stuck a finger into the bottle, covering the tip of it in the stuff. Pulling it out and aiming for her mouth, she was stopped by Cassandra’s own hand. 

“Olivia, I believe you,” she interjected, before grabbing an edge of her lover’s dress skirt and rubbing her finger in it, ridding it of the sand-like substance. In return, Olivia groaned slightly. 

“You are so stiff and you don’t even know what it is! Just let me surprise you!”

“You surprise me every hour of every day, I hardly see a deficit in that area.”

“Okay, but, if you don’t count the hours of sleep we have–”

“Would you call restless spare minutes of slumber in between lovemaking hours of sleep?”

“Cassandra…” Olivia slouched, leaning into her chest and holding the bottle between them snug in her hands. “Have I ever steered you in the wrong direction before? You have always said I am a capable professional. I would not endanger you or your health. You are far too pretty to lose,” she smiled with a charm that only women who desired to get their way knew how to deploy. The Seeker was immune to many powerful forces, but not this one. 

Cassandra sighed, tilting her head back a bit. “Fine. But, I am owed an explanation.”

“Yes, of course! Complete with footnotes and references. I never work without citations!” Olivia hopped once on her toes, before moving away from her lover to get to work. Turning the bottle upside down, she shook a palm-full of it onto the middle of her hand. 

First, she climbed up onto the dresser drawers, needing no assistance as she did so. Then, with a generous exhale, she blow the powder up onto the upper half of the walls and ceilings. The abundant candle light provided enough visibility for her to ensure she was getting all the areas. Then, the used the table, and then the trunk at the foot of Cassandra’s bed for platforms. Being petite meant knowing how to get a height boost in any and all circumstances. 

“Okay, that should be enough! I’m almost out of this sample anyway,” she said, hopping down onto her feet. Cassandra had watched her the entire time from her standpoint by her desk, arms folded. Part of her wanted to spot Olivia whilst she climbed and crawled her way throughout the room, but she knew this woman had no need for help in any endeavor. 

Olivia put the near-empty bottle on the corner of the desk, returning to Cassandra’s side. 

Alright, now, the candles must go out!” she said, growing more excited in anticipation. 

“May I ask why, yet?”

“No, but soon. I promise, my love. Ready?”

“Don’t we have to go blow out the–”

In an instant, Olivia utilized her magical talents to do the work smarter and not harder. With a snap of her fingers, the candles in various parts of the room went out as if blown on by the lips of six people. Their vanishing light left the room nearly pitch-dark, save for the small windows letting moonlight slip in. The two of them were now standing in what felt like a part of the vast unknown, with four walls and simple furniture. 

“I suppose I should have expected that method,” Cassandra mused as they stood still. 

Through the dark, Olivia’s heartfelt chuckle rang out. 

“Okay, I had it right in the tower, I just have to…” the slight breeze conjured in her arm movements were all that was able to be ascertained by Cassandra, who stood there clueless as to what Olivia’s goal was.

Then, in the span of one inhale, Olivia’s irises began to glow with a warm honey color. They were matched in luminosity by her fingertips. Ribbons of sparkling light began to orbit around her fingers and hands, continual in their length as they spun and intertwined strands of themselves around her skin. She held her hands out on either side of her ribs as if she were gesturing to hold someone by their elbows. Cassandra couldn’t help but be dumbfounded by the sight: the absolute darkness, and then Olivia’s golden aura, as if she were a Saintly spirit sent to absolve the world of its phantoms. 

All this for a simple experiment? 

Then, her eyes caught onto the light which began to emanate from the room itself. Suddenly, the cloudy stains of powder began to glow, too, in unison with her. Sparkling and glimmering beads flickered like stars in the sky – and that is exactly what they were intended to mimic. The ceiling became engulfed in it, currents of light flowing from the corner where Olivia was standing up and across it like an ocean of metallic splendor. 

Cassandra hadn’t noticed that her own eyes had widened, her face softening and allowing herself to feel wonder instead of defensiveness. In the span of a minute, she had gone from being the hardass she was always known for, to having her heart be melted in no time at all at the sight of such intimate beauty. Olivia had turned the ceiling of her bedroom into the most brilliant sky with nothing but a bottle of powder and a simple incantation. 

She let the moment sink in, under her metaphorical armor. 

A moment passed, and Olivia snapped out of her spell, the glowing light dancing on her skin releasing into the air like dust, its light going out in an instant. Her irises slightly glowed, still, from the investment of energy – it made for quite the beautiful face to look at in the irridescent atmosphere. When she came to, she immediately smiled with pride. 

“Agh! It worked!” she chimed, stepping out into the middle of the room and gazing up at the wondrous scene she had cast. For a second, she was caught up in the success of it all, but then she remembered the one person who’s opinion mattered to her. Turning back to see the verdict, Olivia’s chest filled with butterflies. Cassandra’s dark hair, her discerning ember eyes, they were illuminated as if my an otherwordly grace.   
The brown color of her resting clothes felt like a warm, embracing aura of energy. The sight of her, looking like a beacon of faith and kindness, made the magic in her body simmer with euphoria. 

“You…” she cooed, “do you like it?” the milkiness in her voice giving away how beguiled she was. 

Cassandra let her arms fall to her side as she stepped forward, looking up and across the ceiling of beautiful, golden starlight. As she proceeded, she noticed that the stardust-like substance was floating in the air. It was odorless, and the shiny grains were untraceable on the tongue or in their throats: it was almost as if it otherwise didn’t exist, besides being seen. And the way Olivia looked with it surrounding her face, how the glowing of her complexion compared to the sparkling of the atmosphere, was enough to prove to Cassandra that there was a holiness to this life. 

“Olivia, I have seen quite a few miraculous sights in my days,” she said, reaching her hand to hold Olivia’s smiling cheek, “but you have managed to make me forget them all.” 

Olivia felt her heart skip a beat. So, her wild and impulsive nature was once again welcomed by her lover where it could have been rejected. It made her feel vindicated about her first thought when she had finally honed in on the recipe hours ago – her thought that, of all people, she wished to show this to Cassandra, to share this with her and no one else. At least, she would be the first. 

Feeling her touch, Olivia’s cheeks grew warm. 

“I’m tickled pink, then. I’m afraid it won’t last forever, after the energy I’ve expelled dissipates.”

Cassandra took one more look up at it all, understanding that such gorgeous sights do not last forever. Still, it was enough to have experienced it at all. 

“Now, may I ask what the purpose of this particular project was?” a grin on her lips now as she pulled Olivia in by her waist. 

Olivia smirked, her shoulders bunching up in a cheerful shrug. “I was working on a concept for metallic-luminescent torches. These are minerals, gathered in samples from the Approach. They are used for Mage weaponry because they conduct magic well. I thought if they could be cultured and imbued onto tools, we could have a light source in all weather conditions, torches that last in caves and in rainstorms. Trouble is, there has to be a Mage to re-enchant them after a certain amount of time.”

Cassandra couldn’t believe Olivia’s mind, and how it endlessly circulated thoughtful and insightful ideas about things taken for granted. She was nothing less than brilliant, and the very idea of her being chosen as her lover in life humbled her. 

“I take it you have reached a small step of success?” she asked, wishing to deflect Olivia’s self-criticisms. 

Olivia’s nose crinkled. “Yes, quite a bit. But, what is the point if every day people cannot use them without knowing a Mage?”

“Mages are everyday people as well, Olivia. Perhaps you must first walk before you can run. This is still progress, and it will mean something to those who utilize your work.”

Olivia’s chest deflated, feeling seduced by Cassandra’s heartfelt kindness into believing her work was meaningful. After so many days of endless working and experimenting, sometimes the one thing she needed to hear was that it was worth it, and not something trivial or superficial in deed. 

“Yes, well,” she leaned onto her tip-toes, “in the mean time, it does work splendidly in creating a romantic ambiance, don’t you think?” 

Cassandra chuckled under her breath, shaking her head slightly. “Indeed, it does. But, then again, you carry enough romantic inspiration in your one finger to send all of Skyhold into a besotted fit.”

Olivia giggled, her lips inching in closer to Cassandra’s. “I could spill this stuff all over the Fortress if I wanted, you know. You shouldn’t tempt my ego.”

“If you did, I would pay sovereigns to see everyone’s reaction.”

“Yes, especially when they hear the name I give for the formula.”

“Oh? And what name is that, pray tell?”

Olivia bit her lip, tilting her head from side to side with energetic bashfulness, her arms wrapping around Cassandra’s sides. 

“Lucidalus Femestalus,” she began, “is the classification. However, as for the name which will go in my books, I am giving it the title la lumière de ma femme.”

Cassandra’s lips parted as she understood slightly what the language meant. In that instant, she felt her cheeks turn warm, and she could only guess at how red they were. Seeing Olivia eye’s flicker from her own down to her complexion, it was confirmed. 

“’My woman’s light.’ You can really entitle it that?”

“Yes, because I created it. Fancy how that works, authority.”

“Olivia,” Cassandra shook her head again, a smile building on her lips, “you never cease to amaze me with your power. In multiple forms.”

Olivia’s eyes widened, as did her smile. “So you like it, then? I would suppose you’d need to approve, since, you would be implicated a bit…”

“Of course I do, on one condition: you kiss me now, before the look of you in this glowing air completely consumes me.”

Olivia, tilted her head slowly, and she made a “tsk” sound with her tongue. Cassandra couldn’t be kept at bay for very long where physical attraction was concerned, especially in the privacy of a room lit up like an entire city’s skyline. Reaching a hand into the back of her lover’s head of short hair, she kissed her with a depth and love befitting such a magical space and time. The light around them began to dance in reaction to the aroused magic in her body, but even that kind of beauty was not enough to distract them. 

Her kiss, and always her kiss, was the most magical thing of all.


End file.
